Whenever I think of Keystone Light, I always think of the 18-pack of Keystone tallboys that my brother gave me after my 21st birthday. We both had a good laugh at the gift, sarcastically praising the quality and amount of money he had to forfeit to reward me with such a present. Next, I think of the "Keith Stone: Always Smooth" ad campaign the company previously used, which I must say I found pretty funny thanks to its overconfident and senseless style of humor. Finally, I think of buying beer in large quantities to provide to guests at parties because it's cheap for me and free for them so they have no grounds to complain.
It's not likely that my opinion of Keystone Light will change, nor will the reasons why I buy it. But thanks to the newest marketing campaign by the company, it is likely that I'll be more inclined to buy Keystone Light over any of the other light beers that I occasionally provide to party guests. Starting at the beginning of September, which conveniently coincides with the beginning of football and tailgate season across the US, Keystone Light cans will feature a Realtree camouflage design as part of it "Can Hunt" campaign. As part of the redesign, some beer cases will feature a special orange can. Discovering the orange can gives people the opportunity to enter a drawing for a variety of prizes as outlined on the Keystone Light Facebook page.
While this isn't the first time Keystone has done the orange can promotion, it is the first time it has featured camo cans. Even though my only sample is football tailgates at large Southern schools where people love to put camo on everything, the new cans seem to be a hit so far. Most of the promotion I've seen has been through word of mouth, but the Facebook and Twitter pages have had a decent amount of material bringing attention to the new cans. It's still too early to really determine if the campaign has been successful, but we should have a pretty solid indication when the promotion ends in late November. My prediction: the cans end up being a success, but don't count on any permanent changes.
It is interesting how people are often motivated to buy when their is a "hunt" or almost game involved. People love the recognition and satisfaction from finding the prized item or can. I think this campaign sounds similar to the "share a coke" campaign that has been very successful.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great blog post. The old Keith Stone campaign was pretty entertaining and memorable. Looking back though, I don't think I ever chose to go with Keystone over other cheap beers because of it. The new camo can, however, puts the beer in a new light. This may not go for everybody, but I think the aesthetics of the can design (at least when it comes to cheap beer) can have a more effective result than an ad campaign for said beer. For instance, the BudLight Whatever, USA campaign hasn't really influenced me to choose it over any others.
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